ICANN Eases Domain Rules

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) has agreed to allow for a nearly limitless variety of domain suffixes.
The non-profit group, which is tasked with managing URL-naming policies, will
now approve URLs that end in a company’s name or geographic location, rather
than only traditional suffixes like .com and .org.

While the news is earning applause by some, it is not withoutcriticism.
Many argue that the relaxed policy will lead to wide-spread “cybersquatting,”
where people gobble up URLs with common names in hopes of cashing in later.
However, ICANN hopes to minimize this by giving trademark holders priority, and
by charging significantly higher rates